Trend-setter in Light Music

An article on S.Rajeshwara Rao from The Hindu, Friday March 12, 1993

By M.L.Narasimham

Remember "Chandraleka", a magnum opus even by today's
standards and its famous drum dance and the music that
enriched it. The creator of that enchanting music was
none other than this year's Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka
Mandram's "Kalaimaamani" award winner, Saluri Rajeshwara
Rao, a pioneer of light music in South Indian films.

"It took us one year to compose music for Chandralekha.
Much of the time was taken for the drum dance sequence.
As the dancers performed, we used to rehearse and
compose the music. It was done with incredibly few
instruments. We used a piano, ten double bass
violins and drums from Africa, Egypt, and Persia
which we have acquired from an African War troupe."
reminisces Rajeshwara Rao, who will be completing
six decades of film career next year.

His tryst with cinema came unexpectedly in the form
of a talent-scouting Huchins Recording Company
to his native Vizianagaram in 1934. A child prodigy,
he could identify the ragas at the tender age of four
and by the time he was seven, he started giving
stage performances. His father, Sanyasi Raju,
was a famous miridangam player for the concerts of
Dwaram Venkatasamy Naidu and was also a lyricist.
Huchins spotted "master" Rajeshwara Rao and took
him to Bangalore along with his father.

"I was 13 then. Since then I have stayed put in the
field of film music and records," recalls Rajeshwara Rao.

Huchins recorded "Bagavat Gita" in Rajeawara Rao's
voice. Soon word spread about his melliflous voice
and producers P.V.Das and Gudavalli Ramabramham,
visted Bangalore, and impressed by his singing
ability, brought him to Madras. Finding that
young Rajeshwara Rao had stage experience too,
they cast him as Lord Krishna in their
"Sri Krishna Leelau" in 1934. The film was
released the next year and Rajeshwara Rao became
a household name all over Andhra. Later for the
same team he played the role of "Abhimanyu" in
"Maya Bazar"(1936). The next year he went to
Calcutta to act in "Keechaka Vadha".

Though he won appreciation as a singer-actor,
the urge to prove himself as a musician was
stronger in him. In Calcutta he met such stalwarts
as Kundan Lal Saigal and Pankaj Mullick, and got
exposed to Hindustani music. He became a disciple
of Saigal and learned Hindustani music for a year.
He also learnt to play the sitar and the surbahar.
He had already mastered playing the tabla, dholak,
and miridangam without the help of a guru. Later
he learnt the piano, harmonium, mandolin and the
electric guitar too. By this time he had acquired
the knowledge of orchestration, of how to mix the
sounds of different instruments.

Rajeshwara Rao returned to Madras in 1938 and formed
his own music troupe, became an assistant to
Jeyaramayyer for a Tamil film "Vishnuleela" in which
he also played the role of Balarama and sang his own
songs. The film was directed by Raja Sandow. This
was the only film for which Rajeshwara Rao worked as
a music assistant. Later he tuned a few songs for a
Kanada film, "Vasantha Sena" (1939) for which
R.Sudharsanam provided the music. The same year he
became a full-fledged music director with "Jeyaprada"
(Pururava) which Chitrapu Narashima Rao directed.
Alongside, he continued with his acting in
"Balanagamma" and "illalu" in which he acted opposite
his famous singing partner, Rao Balasarawati Devi.
Bala Saraswati incidently had acted in "Sri Krishna
Leelalu" too.

By the time "Illalu" was commissioned Rajeswara Rao
was no more interested in acting. His mind was set
on film music. Even his father felt his son would
shine as a music director. He approached Ramambrahmam.
The director was sceptical at first as it was a
social film and doubted whether Rajeshwara Rao could
do justice to it. Moreover Bhimavarapu Narashima Rao
(BNR) was his permanenet music director. After much
persuasion and when BNR himself told the director to
give the boy a try, Rajeshwara Rao was given a cradle
song as an experiment. He composed the music and
rendered the song much to the delight of Director
as well as the original music director of the film.
Rajeshwara Rao got the job he wanted. He also acted
in the movie, which was his last as an actor.

"When I entered the industry there was no playback
system. We used to sing and act at the same time
with the orchestra in the background unseen by the
camera. But by the time I was doing "Illalu" the
playback system had come into vogue," recalls the
veteran.

When the Telugu film song was evolving from stage
poetry to modern lyric, Rajeshwara Rao showed thru
his private records how light music should be.
"Thummeda Oka saari", "Kopamela Radha",
"Podarintilona", "Rave Rave Koyila", "Challo Gaalilo"
"Paata Paduma Krishna" all of which his father has
written.

Rajeshwara Rao, through these songs, set a new trend
in light music in Telugu.

Rajeshwara Rao's most rewarding assignments came from
Gemini, which he joined in 1940. "I joined Jemini on a
salary of Rs. 600 as a music director and by the time
"Chandraleka" was made, it rose to Rs. 1500. My
association with Gemini continued for a decade and
"Apoorva Sagotharagal"(1950) was my last film for them."
"Jeevan mukthi", "Balanagamma", "Mangamma Sabatham",
and "Chandrelekha" were some of the movies for which
he created music while in Gemini. In those days when
there were hardly any modern technical equipment he
created in "Balanagamma" re-recording effects "on
par with any Hollywood film". "And in "Chandreleka"
simply because I mixed western music to local taste
it was appreciated both within the country and abroad.
For music there are no barriers. There is nothing
wrong in making use of western tunes, moulding them
carefully to our taste and to our form. I have done
that for some of my songs in later films like
"Iddaru Mithurulu" and "Bharya Bharthalu" during
the seventies. Though I have made use of western
tunes, no one can say that I have blindly copied them.
But today the scene is different. Western tunes are
being used as they are in our films. This is very
unfortunate" says Rajeshwara Rao.

After leaving Gemini, he got an offer to provide music
for B.N.Reddy's "Malleswari" (1950). It was a
sensational music hit. Then came "Vipranarayana",
"Missiamma" and a host of other musical hits, more
than a hundred of them in Tamil and Telugu and a
few in Kannada. Some of the films might have failed
in the box office, but his music has never let down
cinegoers. When Vijaya's "Missiamma" was made into
"Miss Mary" - producers AVM in Hindi, Hemantha Kumar
provided the music. He changed all the tunes, but
retained one - "Brindavanamum Nandakumaranum"
which Hemantha liked so much that he took permission
to retain it in the Hindi version - an instance of
one master's tribute to another.

Among the classical ragas, Rajeswara Rao likes
Bhimplas, Sindhu Bairavi, Kafi, Kalyani, Pahad,
and Malkauns, which he has used most in his songs.
"Generally songs set in these ragas become popular
with the audience" feels Rajeshwara Rao.

Rajeshwara Rao's two assistants for over four decades
Rajagopal and Krishnan, both well
versed in classical music have proved an asset to him.

Music flows in Rajeshawara Rao's family. His elder
brother S. Hanumantha Rao was a music director in
his own right in the Kannada & Telugu field. Rajeshwara
Rao's eldest son, Ramalingeswara Rao is well known
piano and electric organ player in the South. His
second son, Poornachandra Rao, is a popular guitarist
while his third and fourth sons, Vasu Rao and Koteswara
Rao are well-known music directors today. Vasu Rao
has preferred to go it alone on the lines of his
father's melody, but Koti has formed a team with
Somaraju (son of veteran music director T.V.Raju)
as Raj-Koti and the duo is the most popular team in
Telugu film music today.

On the quality of today's film music, Rajeshwara Rao
blames he producers and directors. "It is not the
audience, but the producers and directors, who are
to be blamed. Today film making and music are like
fast food," he says. Among the directors he rates
Singgetham Srinivasa Rao , who learnt Carnatic vocal
under Rajeshwara Rao, as a man with music knowledge.

Rajeshwara Rao was awarded the honorary doctorate
"Kalaprapoorna" in 1979 by the Andhra University.
He was appointed "Asthana Vidwan" by Tirumala
Tirupathi Devasthanams, during which period he
composed music for Annamacharya Keerthanas sung by
Ghantasala.

His success formula for film music: "In every film
as far as possible there should be a classical song,
a folk song, a rock-n-role type of song to appeal
to the tastes of different viewers. Variety is
important in film music."